Jaipur

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Jaipur is painted pink, and the reason is a guest. In 1876, during the rule of Sawai Ram Singh II, the city was coated in pink to welcome Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. The color stuck. Many of the avenues remain pink to this day, and the epithet Pink City stuck with them. This is the capital and largest city of Rajasthan, a place the physicist C.V. Raman called the Island of Glory, and one writer dubbed the Paris of India. But the color is the surface. Beneath it lies a city that was drawn on paper before it was built in stone, a place engineered to a grid in an age when most cities simply grew. Who decided where every street would go? Why does a 19th-century observatory share World Heritage status with a fort? And how did a desert capital become a stop where European retirees go to find themselves on film? The answers begin with one ruler and a sheet of ancient design rules.

• 2. A City On The Drawing Board

  ›

  On the 18th of November 1727, the Rajput chief of the Kachhwaha clan, Jai Singh II, founded the city that carries his name. In Sanskrit, variations of pur or pura mean a city or town, so Jaipur means The City of Jai. He ruled the region from 1699 to 1743, and he had a problem worth solving. His existing seat at Amer, 11 km away, was straining under a growing population and a shortage of water. Construction began in 1726, and Jai Singh consulted several architects before settling the layout. He built Jaipur on the principles of Vastu Shastra and Shilpa Shastra, under the architectural guidance of Vidyadhar Bhattacharya. The result is one of the earliest planned cities of modern India. The city was divided into nine blocks, with two reserved for state buildings and palaces and the remaining seven given to the public. Huge ramparts went up, pierced by seven fortified gates. Nahargarh Fort, the residence of Sawai Jai Singh II, crowns the hill in the northwest corner of the old city.

• 3. The Logic Of The Grid

  ›

  Three gates face east, west, and north, and each has a name. The eastern gate is Suraj pol, the sun gate. The western is Chand pol, the moon gate. The northern gate faces Amer, the ancestral capital Jai Singh left behind. The streets themselves are what set Jaipur apart. The city is unusual among pre-modern Indian cities for the regularity of its layout, divided into six sectors by broad streets 34 m, or 111 ft, wide. Within those sectors, networks of gridded streets divide the urban quarters further. Five quarters wrap around the east, south, and west sides of a central palace quarter, with a sixth quarter sitting immediately to the east. The Palace quarter holds the Hawa Mahal palace complex, formal gardens, and a small lake. The architecture drew heavily on the 17th-century renaissance of Mughal building in Northern India. After Indian independence in 1947, this engineered capital took on a new role, becoming the capital of the newly formed state of Rajasthan in 1949.

• 4. Monuments And Heritage

  ›

  Hawa Mahal rises 50 ft from its high base, a five-storey pyramidal monument punctured by 953 windows. It is one of the city's signatures, but two other sites carry an even higher distinction. The Jantar Mantar observatory, a collection of 19 astronomical instruments, and Amer Fort are both World Heritage Sites. On the 6th of July 2019, Jaipur itself was placed on the World Heritage Cities list. The roster of attractions runs long. The Albert Hall Museum, Jal Mahal, City Palace, Nahargarh Fort, Jaigarh Fort, Birla Mandir, Galtaji, and the Jaipur Zoo all draw visitors. Sambhar Lake sits about 56 kms from the city. Recognition has followed. In the 2008 Conde Nast Traveller Readers Choice Survey, Jaipur ranked seventh best place to visit in Asia. According to TripAdvisor's 2015 Traveller's Choice Awards, it ranked first among Indian destinations that year. Jaipur forms part of the Golden Triangle tourist circuit alongside Delhi and Agra, and it serves as a gateway to Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Udaipur, Bundi, Kota, and Mount Abu.

• 5. Crafts And Commerce

  ›

  Jaipur foot is a rubber-based prosthetic leg, designed and produced in the city for people with below-knee amputations. It is one product among many in a place built on making things by hand. Jaipur is one of India's largest manufacturers of hand-knotted rugs, and its shops sell antiques, jewellery, handicrafts, gems, bangles, pottery, carpets, textiles, leather, and metal products. The crafts carry distinct names: bandhani, block printing, tarkashi, zari, gota-patti, kinari and zardozi, kundan, meenakari, Lakh ki Chudiya, miniature paintings, blue pottery, ivory carving, and shellac work. The prior rulers patronised these arts, inviting skilled artisans and craftsmen from India and abroad who settled in the city. The modern economy reaches well beyond the bazaar. The GDP of Jaipur district was estimated at INR 1,22,140 crores, or $15.8 billion, in 2020 to 2021. Tourism, gemstone cutting, jewellery, luxury textiles, and information technology fuel it. JCB, Hero MotoCorp, and Robert Bosch GmbH run manufacturing plants here, and the Government of Rajasthan built Asia's largest incubator in the city, the Bhamashah Techno Hub.

• 6. Festivals And Performance

  ›

  The Jaipur Gharana for Kathak is one of the three gharanas of that major north Indian classical dance form. It is known for rapid intricate footwork, vivacious body movements, and subtle Abhinaya. Alongside it, the Ghoomar is a popular folk dance style, and Tamasha presents Kathputli puppet dance in play form. The cultural calendar is crowded. Major festivals include the Elephant Festival, Gangaur, Makar Sankranti, Holi, Diwali, Vijayadashami, Teej, Eid, Mahavir Jayanti, and Christmas. The city is also famous for the Jaipur Literature Festival, billed as the world's largest free literature festival, drawing authors, writers, and literature lovers from across the country. Cultural institutions anchor this life. Jawahar Kala Kendra was established by Charles Correa, and Ravindra Manch and the Government Central Museum hold art and antiquities. The contemporary brand Anokhi revives traditional techniques. The table is as celebrated as the stage, with dishes like Dal Baati Churma, Gatte ki Sabzi, Ker Sangri, and Laal Maans, and sweets such as Ghevar, Mawa Kachori, and Moong Thal.

• 7. Moving Through The City

  ›

  On the 3rd of June 2015, the Jaipur Metro began commercial service between Chandpole and Mansarovar, becoming India's sixth metro rail system. It is the first metro in India to run on a triple-storey elevated road and metro track. Construction on the first line, Phase 1A, began in November 2010 and was completed in 2014, covering 9.63 kilometres from Mansarovar to Chandpole Bazaar across nine stations. Phase 1-B, from Chandpole to Badi Chaupar, opened on the 23rd of September 2020. The city's railway roots run deeper. Jaipur Junction railway station was built in 1875 and is the busiest station in Rajasthan, serving more than 45,000 passengers daily. The cornerstone of the existing building was laid on the 4th of May 1956 by Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II, and construction took three years. The station harnesses solar energy to power its operations. By air, Jaipur International Airport sits in the southern suburb of Sanganer, 13 km from the city, and was granted international status on the 29th of December 2005. It handled 363,899 international and 2,540,451 domestic passengers in 2015 to 2016.

• 8. Jaipur On The World Stage

  ›

  Paul McCartney wrote and recorded a tribute to the city, Riding into Jaipur, running 4:08, on his 2001 studio album Driving Rain. The pink city has a way of drawing outsiders to it, on film and on record. Jaipur is the setting for the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which follow a group of senior European immigrants who retire to Jaipur and, in the process, discover their true selves. The Mountain Goats opened their 2000 album The Coroner's Gambit with a song called Jaipur, describing the narrator's arrival at the gates of the fabled pink city. The city's own ambitions keep pace with its fame. On the field, Sawai Mansingh Stadium seats 30,000 and is the home ground of the IPL team Rajasthan Royals. A new stadium has been proposed for Chonp Village with a seating capacity of 75,000, which would make it the third-largest cricket stadium in the world after the Narendra Modi Stadium and the Melbourne Cricket Ground.